1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for rehabilitation treatment of patients with lower limb paralysis or physical strength weakening, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for lower limb rehabilitation treatment and exercise, which allows a user to exercise both lower limbs separately, and which can detect changes in the angle of lower limb joints and the magnitude of weight loaded on lower limbs to determine the exercise condition, exercise intensity and motor ability of the respective lower limbs to provide corresponding feedback to the user, thereby enabling effective rehabilitation treatment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paralysis or partial paralysis (hereinafter will be referred to as “partial paralysis”) originating from apoplexy, traumatic brain damage, cerebral palsy and so on is a motor paralysis that paralyzes muscles or motors so that the paralyzed or affected muscles cannot exert power to a proper extent at necessary moments. In order to treat the patient with partial paralysis, it is possible to use several methods such as physical strengthening, muscle controlling, extending, balancing and so on. As a rehabilitation exercise of the patient with upper-limb partial paralysis, a treatment for forcing the patient to use the paralyzed upper limb is being recognized as the most successful among several rehabilitation exercises.
In 1994, it was reported by Nugent et al, when patients with apoplexy capable of standing erect perform weight loading, improvement in walking was more apparent as the weight loading is repeated more.
Accordingly, the inventor proposed a sliding board exercise apparatus for rehabilitation treatment that induces forced use of lower limbs as disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0016844. With this apparatus, a patient can lie on a board with the back or stomach touching the board in a stable posture with feet seated on a footing, and then take an exercise of flexing and extending knees without any feeling of uneasiness. Furthermore, the patient can take a patient-specified rehabilitation exercise by adjusting the slant of the board.
The sliding board exercise apparatus for rehabilitation treatment of the inventor has a footing integrated with a fixed frame in which both lower limbs of the patient are supported on the footing. So, there has been a problem in that when the patient with partial paralysis performs loading the weight on the lower limbs for rehabilitation treatment, he/she unconsciously loads the weight on the normal or unaffected lower limb thereby reducing the effect of exercise.
Furthermore, in order to exercise normal walking by continuously changing the angle of the joints of both lower limbs while shifting the weight, motors or muscles in use for weight-shift should be exercised simultaneously with those in use for changing the joint angle. However, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0016844 does not provide any means for detecting the joint angle, and thus the user cannot recognize whether or not the joint of the paralyzed lower limb is used. This as a drawback disables effective rehabilitation exercise for normal walking.
A normal walking is performed by repeatedly flexing the knee of a lower limb at about 15° to support the weight. In the rehabilitation treatment for exercising the normal walking, it should be detected whether or not weight shifting and joint angle change are systematically combined together. However, since this cannot be confirmed in the prior art, the rehabilitation treatment is restricted to the repetition of simple actions of flexing/extending knees.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus for lower limb rehabilitation treatment capable of allowing a user to take an exercise in a lying posture so that the user can feel comfortable without having any feeling of uneasiness to potentially fall down and to adjust the height of a sliding backing plate so that the user can easily raise exercise intensity. There is another need for an apparatus for lower limb rehabilitation treatment that can be easily mounted, used to measure weight load and joint movement, and constituted of inexpensive equipments. Furthermore, there is need for a method for lower limb rehabilitation exercise that can notify a patient in real-time of his/her condition measured by the apparatus so that the patient can perform the rehabilitation treatment without being bored.